Friday's lesson

Continuing on from yesterday, write a paragraph in which you compare the representation of women in the article "How to Get Any Guy to Like You" with that in your chosen fairy tale.

Deal only with one aspect of the representation and use your topic sentence to identify whether the representation has changed or is similar.

Give evidence from both texts to support your view.

Write a good concluding sentence as well. Post both paragraphs to your blog before the end of the lesson.

Thursday's lesson

If you are not working on your fairy tale response, read the article "How to Get Any Guy to Like You" which is on Blackboard.

Identify the representation of women as you did for your fairy tale. Use dot points.

Identify how the representation is constructed. What aspects of the article tell us that women are presented as you suggest. Use dot points and quote from the article.

Now write a paragraph in which you identify the way women are represented  and discuss how the respresentation is constructed. Use the paragrpah that you wrote on Snow White as the model for your paragaph.

Editing Checklist

Imaginative response

1.    Sentence length – varied length or deliberately chosen length.

2.    Sentence openings – varied openings.

3.    Punctuation – used correctly?

4.    Have you tried to use something other than commas and full stops?

5.    Vocabulary – try to find two or three places where you can use a more effective word – look at verbs particularly.

Monday's lesson and homework

Challenging the representation of women in Snow White.

What does challenge mean? To challenge means to question, disagree with, present a different view of.

What might a female character like Snow White do in a text which challenges the representation of women in Snow White?

·         Instead of opening the door to the queen she would recognise the danger and find a way to protect herself and plan to kill the queen

·         When the huntsman tries to kill her she fights him and he runs away

·         She could build her own house and not have to be protected by dwarves

·         She could show intelligence by reasoning with the queen

·         Instead of marrying the prince straight away she wants to get to know him

·         Arrange to work with the queen to rule the kingdom

If we put the story in a modern setting, how might she behave?

·         She could leave home

·         She could ask to go to boarding school to set herself up in life

·         She could choose to go and live with other members of her family

·         She could secretly set up her own internet business and become a millionaire by 17

What might she say?

·         She might get a better lock and say to the queen “You can’t get in”

·         She could convince the huntsman to be on her side and kill the queen instead

·         She could contact the queen’s advisors and tell them that the queen is trying to kill her and the queen could get in trouble

·         She could go to another kingdom and help them defeat the queen

What would she be rewarded for?

·         Intelligence

·         Courage

·         Bravery

·         Fearlessness

·         Confidence

·         Entrepreneurship

·         Determination

·         Independence

What qualities would be valued in women?

·         As above the things she is rewarded for are the things valued

·         Self-respect

·         Personality

What might she be punished for?

·         Maybe because she killed the queen

·         Leaving her kingdom (if responsibility was valued)

In fact, we probably wouldn’t want to punish her. The problem with fairy tales is that women are punished for things like not obeying the rules or for stupidity.

Homework – work on your assignment. Write a paragraph in which you clearly identify the representation of women. Start with a series of dot points as we did in class for “Snow White”. Choose the one or two most important ideas and write a paragraph as you did in class.

Friday's Lesson and Homework Part 2

The representation of women in Snow White.

Planning a paragraph:

In the fairy tale Snow White, the women are represented as...

• A prized possession/an object - The prince wants to possess her
• Unintelligent - She opens the door three times
• Naive - She doesn't recognise the Queen
• Dependent - She needs the dwarves because she can't do things herself
• Weak and pathetic - Can't fend for herself
• Incapable
• Disobedient - Doesn't listen to the dwarves
• Valued by men for their beauty - The huntsman lets her free
• Helpless
• Valuing beauty above everything else - The Queen and her attitude towards Snow White

Choose the two or three most important points and write a paragraph explaining how women are represented in Snow White.

Homework: Your assignment is on Blackboard. Read a variety of fairy tales and choose one that you think you might want to use for your assignment. Use the questions on Blackboard to help you think about the way women are represented and post dot point answers to your blog by Monday.

Friday's lesson and homework Part 1

Snow White What about the men? The men: The huntsmen, the prince and the dwarves. The men are very forgiving. The huntsman lets Snow White go, the dwarves let Snow White live in their house and the prince takes Snow White to his castle. They are all nice towards Snow White because she is beautiful. The huntsman and the dwarves both go out and do the work for the women. This tells us that the men do the work and the women stay at home. The men judge Snow White purely by her looks and beauty. That is the only thing that they value in women. The dwarves are demanding and only let Snow White stay at their house if she did the domestic work at home. They were very demanding and expected Snow White to do exactly what they told her. The dwarves were very protective and saw part of their role as protecting because Snow White, as a woman, needed that. The prince sees Snow White as a possesion. She was something that he just wanted to have. Once she wakes up, the prince decided that they would be married. This shows us that the only thing the prince, as a man, was interested in was her beauty. And the only thing he valued in marriage was a beautiful woman.

Tuesday's homework

Write a paragraph, drawing on the examples you discussed in your group. Discuss the similarities you found between the characters and way you see women being represented in these contemporary texts. Post to your blog by tomorrow’s lesson.

My recommendation

My recommendation is that you try any of John Green's books. I have just started one called "An Abundance of Katherines". Although the main character is a boy called Colin, I am hoping that his ex-girlfriend will be a major character. Colin has just been dumped by his 19th girlfriend called Katherine and he is devastated. Women are clearly represented as having tremendous emotional power over men; however, it does not seem that Katherine has exercised that power maliciously. She is concerned about Colin and his state of mind. If you are looking for something very short and easy, I have just finished a book called, "The Stone Goddess" which is about the journey of a refugee family from Cambodia to America. It is told by Nahkri, who is a little girl at the start and a teenager by the time she reaches America. I will leave it to any of you who read it to identify the representation of women.